Hot habitat- scarce migrants

26 degrees yesterday so I went birding in the dappled shade of one of my local patches- a stunning alder woodland containing a significant number of ancient trees. Although almost at the end of May, the buds are only just starting to burst, so leaf cover is still limited. 

Alder woodland

Historically this has been a good site for significant numbers of spotted flycatcher, redstart and the commoner phylloscs. In previous years I have also noted a very occasional wood warbler and breeding redwing. I spent 3 hours of perfect solitude scanning every nook and cranny expecting to find many of the above. It was rather worrying that having thoroughly covered the ground the only migrant birds noted were two spotted flycatchers and a solitary willow warbler. Even the year-round resident woodland species were noticeably thin on the ground.  I'm fast running out of birding options as the breeding and post-breeding slump already feels as if it is here. Roll on the autumnal wader passage!

spotted flycatcher

spotted flycatcher

spotted flycatcher

Cornwall (mostly)

Family visits in Cornwall entailed a flight down to Bristol and a weeks worth of hire car. To ease the sense of despair concerning my dwindling bank account it seemed only fair and reasonable that to optimise my return I should undertake a bit of twitching and general birding whilst being in the vicinity of some good birds! 

16/05 Within an hour of touchdown I had driven to Woodford lodge at Chew valley lake, purchased my 'birding permit' driven on to Blagdon and got my scope on the wonderful squacco heron! (admittedly a fellow birder put me onto the bird and probably saved me a stressful hour or two combing the wet meadow!). Although the bird was only partially on view and rather distant, it was a great bird to see and a worthy addition to my UK life list!

Squacco heron

Two hours later I stopped off on the Charlton road bridge at west moor in Somerset, walked across a field and practically tripped over the white stork that had been reported in the area for a couple of days- my birding break (sorry- family visit!) was off to a flyer! I opted for the scope instead of the camera for this bird, which with hindsight, was the wrong choice. I even put 3 other birders onto the bird as you could walk right past it, if you didn't look through the right gap in the hedge- nice to help fellow birders after my assist on the squacco! :)

A few hours later and I was in Helston playing the part of the dutiful son, whilst at the same time secretly wishing that some more twitchable goodies would merit an sms message alert!

17/05 Mid morning I found myself back at one of my favourite birding locations- Marazion marsh. It was a cold day for May and birds were scarce but I picked up the likes of Cettis, reed and sedge warbler as well as little egret. An otter eating an eel on the surface of long rock pool was a pleasant bonus. Moving on to the Hayle estuary and then Gwithian produced only a grey plover and a couple of peregrines.  

sedge warbler

grey heron

18/05 Took a walk along the coast path at Predannack on the Lizard in the hope of finding my own good birds but everywhere was quiet. Had reasonable views of peregrine again, also singing whitethroat, but worryingly no sign of any dartford warblers.

whitethroat

dunlin

shags

fulmar

peregrine

A quick return to Marazion turned up some splendid whimbrel on the beach which were briefly joined by a grey plover.

whimbrel

sanderling, grey plover, dunlin

grey plover

The next couple of days were desperately quiet at Hayle, Marazion, Helston Looe pool and there was nothing to twitch. The only birds of note were green woodpecker, more little egrets and a couple of very smart stonechats. 

little egret- Ryans field, Hayle

I narrowly missed a roseate tern in Mounts bay, spent over two hours looking for another at Dawlish warren on the way home and then dipped out on one of my worst ever twitches when I went for the great reed warbler in Somerset- in fact it was so traumatic I can't bare to write about it!

All in all a great week looking at some great birds and pushing the year list up to 145. (and of course happy families well and truly played) :). 

Spey bay and Rubha Reidh

With the hire car booked for a couple of days I had been hoping that a few twitch-worthy birds would be reported that did not involve drives of over 150 miles. Alas nothing I really wanted to see has been reported so I have spent the time looking for my own birds. Yesterday, as I was due to undertake a pick-up from Inverness airport I made it a day out in the NE of Scotland and had a very enjoyable time at Spey bay. It was good to see relatively large numbers of birds and experience a long overdue cacophony of bird song! I got to see and hear my first singing sedge warblers and whitethroats of the year and had lovely views of common and little tern. A couple of ospreys were an added bonus and I spent some time enjoying the several hundred swallows and sand martins that were hawking insects over the river. 

swallow

common tern

common tern

Today I drove down the west coast to Gairloch then headed up the 9 miles of single track road to the light house at Rubha Reidh. A great site for sea watching so I set up camp with the scope and a flask for a couple of hours. Passage was fairly light with only 4 great skuas of note, although I also brought the year list up to 130 with puffin and manx shearwater. As is often the case only the gannets and herring gulls presented photo opportunities. 

gannet

As I have mentioned previously (and will probably do so again) I am not especially fond of the larger gulls, however on some occasions even the humble herring gulls can look rather splendid!

herring gull

Snow fun

Even by my recollection of highland weather this May seems incredibly unsettled and cold. I have been doing some weird birding over the last few days looking at wheatears stood in the snow, a ringed plovers' nest with 4 eggs dusted in snow and meadow pipits displaying over snow fields at 500 metres! Apart from the obvious lack of migrants I have managed to add a few more species to the year list including red grouse, ptarmigan, grey wagtail, golden eagle, wood warbler, house martin, common tern and sanderling (125).  I even came across what I thought was a leucistic quail although following some advice it appears this bird is an escaped golden quail?

A walk up to the summit of Beinn Dearg at 3500+ feet was hard work in knee deep snow but the views from the top made it worth while.

Beinn Dearg 

approaching the bealach below Beinn Dearg

Today I stayed at sea level with another visit to Achnahaird for nice views of sanderling and dunlin.

sanderling

dunlin & ringed plover

Patchwork

wheatear

Visited a few local haunts over the last few days picking up the likes of redstart, ring ouzel, grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, twite and snipe. Migrants are still woefully scarce on the ground so finding anything has been challenging. Went to one of my favourite sites today- Achnahaird- saw 4 GND's, a few golden plover and a colour-ringed ringed plover.

golden plover

colour-ringed ringed plover

Achnahaird with Stac Pollaidh in the distance

Loch Maree

Had a drive down to Loch Maree yesterday with fellow birder Richard Rafe. We went to have a look for Scottish xbill and then onto the west coast for a check on the divers and a brief sea watch. Early  excitement came in the form of the narrow escape for the male pheasant that started to run in front of the car! As is often the case with recognised sites, no xbills were seen or heard. In fact the whole visit was a bit of a let down- no migrants with the exception of small numbers of willow warblers. Even common woodland species were scarce on the ground. Temperatures of 4-5 degrees celsius, a very cold northerly air flow and fresh snow cannot be too inviting to passage migrants.

Loch Maree- few birds but stunning natural beauty!

gorgeous- but not exactly inviting to migrant passage!

Anyway a couple of black-throated divers were heard and seen distantly but that was it! A short stop for coffee and cakes in Gairloch was followed by a run up the 'road' to Rubha Reidh light house. Although one of  my preferred sea- watching sites on this stretch of coast,  I don't get here as often as I like because it can be a drag to get too, with a very long and narrow approach road. It was worth a brief look though, with 150 or so kittiwakes close inshore on the sea, a small movement of gannets and razorbills, an eider, 1 ringed plover, 1 fulmar an iceland gull, 3 great skuas heading north and 12 purple sandpipers on the rocks below the light house.  A fairly casual look for the white billed diver on loch Ewe failed to locate the bird as did further scans of the sea from Mellon Udrigle beach. 10 GND's were on the sea around gruinard island, an otter was seen in the sea and a white-tailed eagle drifted overhead bringing my year list up to 110.

 

Wild goose chase

25/04 Up early and an 80 mile drive from Ullapool to Brora via lairg to try and catch up with the Red-breasted goose. Despite appalling weather conditions forcing me to slow to 20 mph on a couple of occasions I eventually arrived and located the bird with 60 or so pink feet, 7 or 8 curlew and 3 whimbrel thrown in for good measure. Another much needed life tick!

Stopped off at 'The Mound' on the way back and relaxed for a while listening to a couple of singing blackcaps whilst watching a few teal, greenshank and common sandpipers.

Local rounds

I have spent a few days re-acquainting myself with some 'local' birding areas. Saturday (21/04) saw me spending a couple of hours walking up the river Broom valley. Plenty of willow warblers about, but that was about it on the migrant front, although a flock of circa 80 mipits were obviously mostly passage birds. A year tick popped up in the form of a lesser redpoll- a bird that was surprisingly scarce over the winter, with this individual feeding in the alders with a pair of siskin. A pair of redwing with a singing male was a good find as a few pairs have been known to breed in the general area. I had good views of all the common woodland species and fly-overs of buzzard and raven.

(22/04) An elusive white-billed diver has been reported over the last couple of weeks at a couple of sites in and around Loch Ewe on the west coast. Sunday seemed a good time to drive down the west coast in the hope of connecting with this bird. Little loch broom turned up a single great northern diver, 1 red-throated diver and 4 black-throated divers as well as 4 shelduck- an irregular species here. The head of the loch at Dundonnell also produced ringed plover, curlew, greenshank and red-breasted merganser. Slightly further on I counted 18 great northern divers dispersed around Gruinard island. It took a surprising amount of time to work through them all carefully as they kept diving just as I got them in my scope. I saw nothing suggestive of a white-billed diver, although one bird had a lighter bill which made me do a double take. 2 Great skuas and several gannets following a local fishing boat gave me a couple more year ticks. Half a dozen black guillemots, 2 cormorants and 4 shags later and the area was well and truly worked.

Little Gruinard had another 6 GND and 1 BTD in the bay, plus another greenshank, several ringed plover, and a very smart male reed bunting in the willow scrub. A small flock of lesser redpolls worked along the back of the beach in the tree line. More GND were seen in on the way to Mellon udrigle. The beach and dunes held a few wheatear, heaps of mipits and a couple of pied wagtails. A very nice Iceland gull flew over the beach which held 15 ringed plover and several groups of walkers. A single GND drifted offshore but the WBD remained elusive!

(23/04) I spent the morning doing 'computer work'- finishing my report from my last job, invoicing, catching up on emails etc. It felt like a waste of quality birding time in all honesty but had to be done! Lunchtime I met up with birding buddy Richard and we headed off to Achnahaird. We had a nice little birding session with common sandpiper, peregrine, sandwich tern, twite and a nice flock of golden plover bringing my year list up to 100. Other birds seen included redshank, greenshank, common sand. wheatear and ringed plover.

Not exactly a migrant-fest but enjoyable birding!

(24/04). The morning was spent driving to Inverness for chores. A couple of red kites over the A835/A9 were a momentary distraction and fuelled my need to get out in the field once again. Leaving Inverness late morning, the rain came on in a way that had me cursing under my breath. I decide that the only option was to visit the hides at Munlochy bay and then Udale bay- both on the Black isle. I only got as far as Munlochy as five minutes after arriving I saw a wonderful great white egret- a self-found lifer! After rubbing my eyes and cleaning my glasses in disbelief I got the bird in my scope and convinced myself that yes it actually was a GWE! Although generally recognised as a 'scarcity', in this part of the world it is a very good bird that requires a written description for acceptance by the Scottish birds rarities committee (SBRC). A few moments later I had sent texts and made a couple of calls to local birders and then put the news out on the national bird news service. Over the next few hours a dozen or so birders turned up to see it. It was good to meet several birders for the first time and put 'names to faces', however I felt rather nervous when one of them sent texts to two previous highland county recorders and the incumbent county recorder! I suddenly had a horrible feeling that maybe, just maybe I had made a horrible mistake and that it was a much more common little egret- but no! everyone watching the bird confirmed that it was a GWE- phew! Fortunately the local WDCS (whale and dolphin conservation society) field officer - Charlie Phillips,  turned up with a nice 600mm lens and got some nice shots despite  the range and heat haze! I drove home feeling exhausted but elated and after sampling a small beer (honestly) I wrote and submitted my description of the bird to the county recorder. The only thing to do then was take great pleasure in updating my UK life list! Later that evening news broke of another potential lifer for me- a cracking red-breasted goose at Brora. I made a plan and went to bed with the intention of getting up at stupid o'clock and going on a twitch!

great white egret (photo: Charlie Phillips).